ozark oddessey
This is a belated trip report .The first week of February, a group of anglers and myself made our annual pilgrimage to Arkansas. We stayed at Gastons,a first class operation.Gastons is located on the banks of the famous White river,about two miles or so from the Bull Shoals Dam.Seth and I arrived on Saturday,after a three and a half hour drive from Little Rock.We bought our fishing licenses, made a quick stop at the Cane Island Fly Shop[very helpful staff]and headed for the river.We fished just below the dam, and were into some small rainbows in short order.The next few days we saw the size of fish increase.Seth landed a rainbow over 25in.I landed a brown about 24in.We used mostly Wooley Buggers ,They are deadly down there. On Tuesday we fished the North Fork,another great tail water fishery.The fishing was tougher.rising fish everywhere,but very selective.I landed a nice rainbow on a 22 bwo,lost a big one on a Black Ghost,and caught more on midges, and Wooleys. Seth held his own also.The rest of the week we fished both rivers and caught many trout on streamers, sowbugs,woolies ,and I learned glo bugs in peach are very effective.The weather was good most of the week,mid50-60,until friday.The temp went from 70 at 6:30am to 28 at noon.Iced up guides, and frozen reels are a drag.The trout still were on the feed and gave us action.The next morning the temp was 15.Seth and I were on the water just after dawn.We caught some nice fish that morning ,then headed down river and found a bunch of fish feeding in broken water.That afternoon we saw a 8-10lb brown clear the water right in front of us.We did well on streamers,sowbugs, and wooleys.The browns down here jump like rainbows.This is the only place I have seen this happen.On Sunday the temp warmed to 23 at dawn.We were fishing in the c+r area.I tied on a glo bug with a strike indicator about four ft.above the egg.The indicator went down at the end of the fight I landed a 20+ brown. One more fish ,and the horn blew ,the river cameup about six ft.We checked out of Gastons and headed back to Little Rock via The Little Red river.Wooley Buggers ,more fish, and then it was over.1am Manchester -10 degrees .We caught many quality fish,even had a grand slam on the North Fork[cutt,bow,brown,andbrookie].We had decent weather,great fishing and uncrowded waters.
Domenic